Macron-Modi to Cochair International Solar Alliance Launch on March 11

International Solar Alliance became a treaty-based inter-governmental international organisation on December 6, 2017, registered under Article 102 of the United Nations Charter.

French President Emmanuel Macron is to pay a state visit to India to cochair the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance with PM Modi, in the national capital on Sunday.

A brainchild of Modi, the India-based alliance — a coalition of 56 signatories to the ISA Framework Agreement — aims at accelerating deployment of solar energy by reducing costs and making adequate funding available for its rapid deployment in solar-rich member-nations.

With the backing of nearly 121 member-countries rich in solar energy, 26 have so far ratified ISA’s Framework Agreement.

ISA became a treaty-based inter-governmental international organisation on December 6, 2017, registered under Article 102 of the United Nations Charter.

India has reached 20 GW cumulative solar capacity, achieving the milestone four years ahead of the 2022 target originally set in the National Solar Mission.

It now aims to increase its solar capacity to 100 GW by 2022. India’s solar installations in 2017 at 9,629 MW was more than double the 4,313 MW installed in 2016.

Its pipeline of utility-scale projects under development stood at approximately 10.6 GW at year-end 2017, with another 4.3 GW of tenders pending auction.

ISA aims to mobilise more than $1,000 billion in solar investments by 2030 to minimise fossil fuel dependence that help keep global temperatures from rising above two degrees Celsius by the end of the century.